Eccentrics are healthier

Adapted from the Examiner (USA) monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights; an article by Victoria McKee in the Times, and another in the Economist (aug 26th '95).

Not only do eccentrics live five to ten years longer than the norm, they are also, on average, healthier (visiting the doctor only once every eight years compared to about three times a year for the general public), happier and more intelligent than the rest of the population. Dr David Weeks, author of 'Eccentrics: The Scientific Investigation' (published by Stirling University Press, 1988, L27-50), came to admire the sense of humour, creative imagination, and strong will which he discovered are common characteristics of the 1,100 eccentrics he interviewed - and he believes that these traits help keep them healthy. They have an over-riding curiosity that drives them on and makes them oblivious to the irritations and stresses of daily life that plague the rest of us.

'Sense of humour, creative imagination, and strong will are common characteristics of eccentrics'

'They don't try to keep up with the Joneses, they don't worry about conforming and they usually have a firm belief that they are right and the rest of the world is wrong,' Week says.

Eccentricity, he stresses, is not mental illness. In a sense it can act as a protection against more serious mental disorders, as the mild cowpox vaccine prevents a full-blown case of smallpox. Eccentrics are creative, highly curious, aware of their differentness from an early age, and happily obsessed by their hobby-horses. They are often single, the oldest or only child, and poor spellers. They tend to be cheerful and idealistic, full of projects to improve or save the world. They may tinker with perpetual motion machines, discover how to assemble cars from rubbish, or, in the case of John Chapman (better known as Johnny Appleseed), traverse America planting zillions of apple trees.

'I am already using what I've learned from my study of eccentrics in treating the patients referred to me for depression,' Weeks says, 'and I'm certainly getting better results than I was before. I tell them to loosen up - to use their sense of humour and their imagination. Neurotic patients are over-serious.'

- Dr David Weeks, Jardine Clinic, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Terrace, Edinburgh, EH10 5HF (tel 0131 447 2011, ext 4614/4414).

- Dr Siegried Munser, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Vienna, has carried out a similar study.